| 'False Alarm' (8,000 words, approx.)
Davies had ceased believing in buried treasure at a very early
age and his skepticism had included such related items as Ancient
and Forgotten Documents and Perilous Voyages in search of it.
'False Alarm' is a puzzle-for-spacemen* story that holds more
emotional significance than the usual clockworky, surprise-ending
thing of its kind. Professor Davies, a philologist seconded
to the A-Drive spaceship Hannibal, must extract vital data from
the ET base left abandoned in Titan's methane snowbanks.
But there "was no Rosetta Stone to help him here (and) he had
come nine million miles to rummage in an alien wastepaper basket."
*Taken from John Brunner's 'Puzzle For Spacemen' (New Worlds,
October 1955)
Synopsis by Graham Andrews
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